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Arts & Entertainment

City Celebrates French Heritage

Saturday crowds enjoyed fiddle-powered jigs, tasty meat pies, and great summer weather.

Looking over Betty Mencucci's booth at River Island Park, it was easy to imagine she'd somehow pickled the last great Saturday of the summer. She was at the French Heritage Day celebration selling jars of golden honey, collected from 20 bustling beehives she keeps in her Burrillville backyard.

"There's not a lot of money in beekeeping, but bees are fascinating, and it's fun being at an event like this," she said. "There's a good crowd here, the weather's great, and who doesn't like the French music."

Everyone who attended the one-day festival would no doubt second that opinion. Organized by the Northern Rhode Island Council of the Arts, the cultural celebration and farmers market was the place to be in Blackstone Valley this weekend. There was great food, laughs shared with friends, and plenty of fiddle-powered jigs and reels.  

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For most of the afternoon, the band Reveillons, from Montreal, Quebec, served up raucous French-Canadian dance songs. Richard Forest sawed the fiddle, Marc Maziade picked a banjo or guitar, Jean-François Berthiaume banged the spoons and other percussion, and his brother David Berthiaume played the concertina and jaw harp. "This is the third or fourth year we've played this event, and we always get a great reception," said David Berthiaume. "Woonsocket has great people."

At the snack bar, a steady stream of customers lined up to sample meat pie, salmon pie, hot dogs and dynamites, the spicy hamburger sandwich found only in the Woonsocket area. "We've sold close to 40 meat pies," said Joann Freschke, who helped run the booth with her sister Bobbie Baillargeon. "It's a French Canadian specialty, that's why."

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The city's guests from Quebec, the musicians, ordered the pie -- called "tortiere" in the old country -- and gave it their stamp of approval. "They loved it," said Sharon Charette of North Smithfield, another snack booth volunteer.

The treat proved so popular that supplies ran out before Ellie Nadeau, of the Woonsocket School Committee, could place an order. "I had to get salmon pie instead," she said. "But that looks good, too."

Another favorite treat were crepes, served up by the Northern Rhode Island Council for the Arts. Britney Theroux, 12, a student at Mount St. Charles Academy, wielded a spatula to turn the light delicacies, supervised by her cooking instructor, Mariana Hadady.

"We're using a French Parisian recipe I got off the internet," Hadady said. "But we added a secret ingredient -- club soda, to make them fluffy."

Though fall has arrived, during Saturday's event it felt as though summer was still in full swing. That was just fine by sisters Meryl Levinson and Barbara Levinson, Woonsocket natives now living in Hopedale, who both wore brightly-colored sun hats. "Why not?" said Meryl. "It's a great day to wear hats. It's sunny, it's beautiful, and we're strutting our stuff."

A highlight of the day was the apple-pie-eating contest, which drew eight contestants. The goal: To see who could wolf down the most pie in just five minutes time. In a concession to Emily Post, contestants were limited to one pie each. The prize -- a restaurant certificate -- went to John Shear of Woonsocket, the only one who cleaned his plate.

The others in the game were left licking their wounds and their pie-smeared lips. "I never want to see another pie again," said Kiara Metivier, 12, of Bellingham, who joined the contest with friend Taitum Odanian, 10, of Woonsocket.

She spoke for nearly everyone who took part. Most were people of mature judgment who likely would have skipped the competition were they not goaded to join in by an instigator, Germaine Gaulin of Woonsocket. She double-dog-dared her husband George and several friends to partake.

"She pushed me into it," said Madeleine Riendeau or Woonsocket. "And the crust was not that great!"

Valerie Paul, a ranger with the National Park Service, was on hand to promote interest in the Blackstone Valley Sugaring Association. The group has a sugarhouse at the Blackstone River & Canal Heritage State Park in Uxbridge, and on several weekends in March, they offer demonstrations on how to boil down sap to make syrup. Rangers working with the Blackstone River National Heritage Corridor organized the effort to spur interest in the area's woodland environment and New England traditions.

"Maple sugaring is a tradition in Quebec as well, so it's a good fit with today's event," Paul said. "Every year we have about 40 volunteers tapping trees, collecting sap, and teaching others how to make delicious maple syrup. For a while it was something of a lost art in the Blackstone Valley, but a lot more people are trying it now."

Vendors set up tables offering everything from jewelry to baby clothes to bow ties. Most of the items were hand-made crafts. Woonsocket woodworker Thomas Richards sold decorative wooden signs, bird houses and other items.  He took up the hobby when he retired. Doll furniture was his big seller Saturday.

"I make 90 percent of it," he said. "I make a wide variety of things -- Christmas items, Halloween items. Motorcycle items are big. I never know what I'm going to make until I go to work."

Diedrich and Lynnette Reimer, part of a local congregation of Mennonites, sold eye-catching vegetables grown at Wenger's Farm in Bellingham. Their distinctive dress also prompted questions about their church, which they were glad to answer. Those who asked also received pamphlets explaining the tenets of their faith.

"Mennonite families moved to this area from Pennsylvania because we heard from people who were interested in our church," Lynette said. "Those people never joined, but others in this area have. My family was the third that arrived here. I was five at the time, and now I'm 23, so that was 18 years ago."

The Mendon Mennonite Church, located on Rte. 140 near Mendon-Bellingham line, now has about a hundred members. While some Mennonites in Pennsylvania and elsewhere avoid using cars or anything powered by electricity, that's not the case with the Blackstone Valley group.

In one corner of the park, a small group of men and women in long coats and three-corner hats dodged the sun beneath a small tent. Around their camp were muskets and iron cooking pots and other gear that looked like it belonged in another century. They were Revolutionary War re-enactors, wearing the uniforms of Le Regiment Bourbonnais, French soldiers who were sent to America in 1779 to help Washington's army fight the British.

"It's a lot of work," said Cindy Lincoln, one of those wearing a soldier's uniform. "But it's also very satisfying to help people understand history. It's important that people know what the French did for America."

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